Wiring in pickups...any tips?

So the other day I got my flying v back from the nearest tech who is over an hour away. I had a bone nut installed,Sperzel tuners and swap out the bridge pickup.

Well..I jammed on it there(at the shop) for a little while on some small crappy sounding amp. I thought it sounded ok but I got home and realized that I am just not bonding with the bridge pickup. I pry up the pickguard and found out that it looks terrible in there!!

So...I guess it's time for me to learn how to do this so that it can be done right!

Any suggestions or tips would be much appreciated!

I think I am going to put the Dimarzio Evolution in the V.

Learn to solder. There are many great tutorials on the www. Do some googling. A 20 to 30 wat soldering iron is perfect for guitar wiring. Get some scrap wire and practice splicing pieces together. Once you have some practice under your belt, then think about working on your guitar. Another thing that you may benefit from is getting an elcheapo potentiometer or pot. Don't matter what value. These are your volume and tone controls. Practice soldering thin wire to the back of one. This will be a sacrificial pot just for practice. You can also get cheap capacitors @ Radio Shack. Practice installing a cap to a pot. Once you're comfortable, get into your git.

WARNING: WORKING ON GUITARS CAN BE ADDICTIVE.

You'll end up packratting parts, building guitars you don't need and generally drain your bank account on DIY projects. Me, I don't have a problem. I can quit anytime I want to. I just don't want to.

Great advice! Thanks!!

The idea of modding is addictive to me. I am an old car guy and a gearhead..I think it carries over to guitars as well because I can't leave anything stock!

You're afflicted with MMS (Must Modify Syndrome).

Yea...that's it!

My '69 Barracuda...hmmm..I wonder how I can make it faster?!!...new intake..larger cam and the heads could use porting to.

Guitar rig..yep, these preamp don't sound as good as __________. Aww, this pickup is ok but that one rocks!!

Exactly. I own a '95 Kawasaki ZX11. Bought it new ad followed the break in procedure in the owners manual. when I had 1000 miles on it I whacked the throttle and thought, "This thing is waaay too fast. I'm gonna kill myself!! Wonder how much a big bore kit costs." All I did was a Vance & Hines exaust and a Dynojet kit. but it proves the point. Way too fast and I gotta make it faster? It truly is a disease.

I installed my pickups last year. Like the other guy said, check the web. There's lots of good stuff. I like the demo pickup installs by Jason Lollar the best.

I bought a RadioShack soldering iron. I'd recommend avoiding it, and spending a little more money. I still use it though. 30 watts is better than 20. Guitar stuff is big, compared to the little bitty electronics that most people work on. You just have to be fast with it and use common sense and try not to cook things (which you're just as likely to do with too little heat for too long).

They still sell lead solder (actually lead/tin). Get it. The lead-free solder has a higher melting point and doesn't flow as well, meaning your skills have to be better. The lead is actually not any more toxic than the various metals in lead free solder, and as long as you seal it up in your guitar, clean up well and wash your hands, it poses very little threat to you. Good luck.

I agree with the 30 watt iron. I also like to use solderless ring terminals for my grounds. For a beginner, this avoids cooking the pota. They are available in 5/16" and 3/8" sizes to fit over the pot shafts. I've perfected the technique of soldering to the back of pots. The main trick is to clean the heck out of them and use a bit ot sandpaper to get a nice surface to solder to. But I just like the neater look of the ring terminals. I'm not sure, but I think there are wiring diagrams in the stickies at the beginning of the forum here. If not, guitarelectronics.com has good ones as does the Seymour Duncan website.

Soldering comes down to practice and using heatsinking and a well planned method.

The whole trick is to melt the solder quickly so the components arent overheated and not applying too much solder.

Apply heat to the metal first is the other critical item. You should not ally solder before the joint is at temp. The metal should melt

the solder, not the tip of the soldering gun. The tip is tinned so it makes effective heat transfer to the joint to bring the joint to the

proper temp, then solder will melt on the metal and bond the parts together. If properly done a soldered joint is stronger then the joined metals.

Heat sinking using alligator clips prevents heat from passing beyond it. They should be used whenever possible. They arent possible with many small

components like mini switch terminals and such so fast and effective soldering and quick cooling may be the only options in those cases.

Someone highly experienced can make a soldering job look good. Whats more important is the soldering is troubble free and efective.

The main thing is the soldering job shouldnt damage parts, It shouldnt be excessive so it blobs over and shorts components it shouldnt, and it must

not have cold solder joints. Cold solder joints are caused by applying solder before the metal is hot enough to make the solder flow. It will ball up and trap flux between

the metals. Flux is corrosive, its supposed to be to remove dirt and oxidation preventing a join. A cold solder joint may innitialy make a good contact. The trapped rosin

will eventually oxidize the contacts and cause the contact to become intermittitant or just plain fail to pass electricity.

When the solder is applied to the metal when its hot, the rosin coats the joint to clean it then is evaporated by the molten solder that then flows over the joint and the oxygen is also forced out.

Thats about it. The rest is good work habits and prevention. Keeping the soldering tip clean and tinned, cleaning the tip before letting the thing cool. Leaving rosin on the tip will cause it to crater and get eaten up.

In guitars keeping the leads short and covered by grounding material is paramount in keeping the hot wires from acting like antennas and pickup up AC hum. On a lead coming from the pickup for example,

keeping the inner conductor under an inch of exposed wire is highly recomended. The outer shielding should be twisted together into a single conductior before soldering. Having it too short when soldering can cause it to heat up and melt the inner wire shorting it out so again heat sinking is important.

Having the plastic insulation come close to the soldering joint is also important in preventing shorts. Long bare metal leads are more likely to short out in close quarters with other wires.

There again, having the insulator too close to the joing soldering will melt the insulation and solder will wick up under it making the wire weak and brittle. Using a heat sink helps to avoid this.

Thats about it. Its easire to solder high quality components in many cases. Cheap parts are cheap because the construction materials are cheap and being cheap they are easily damaged by the heat.